From the bucolic Spanish music, through the entrance of General Wilkinsons, Pike's benefactor and nemesis, to Pike's wife and father begging Pike to renounce Wilkinson. The opera's musical climax, "Homeward Bound," a quartet with chorus, begins 2:50.
Oops - that should be "Wilkinson." He was plotting with Aaron Burr to split off the west, where they could found their own country. One theory of the Pike expedition is that Burr and Wilkinson expected Pike's presence to trigger a Spanish military response, which would justify the the US sending troops that would take over the southwest. The Spanish would have nothing to do with it, and treated Pike and his men as honored guests.
A note from the composer:
From the bucolic Spanish music, through the entrance of General Wilkinsons, Pike's benefactor and nemesis, to Pike's wife and father begging Pike to renounce Wilkinson. The opera's musical climax, "Homeward Bound," a quartet with chorus, begins 2:50.
absinthesizer 4 years ago
Oops - that should be "Wilkinson." He was plotting with Aaron Burr to split off the west, where they could found their own country. One theory of the Pike expedition is that Burr and Wilkinson expected Pike's presence to trigger a Spanish military response, which would justify the the US sending troops that would take over the southwest. The Spanish would have nothing to do with it, and treated Pike and his men as honored guests.
absinthesizer 4 years ago